Moron Management
thusspakezuska | May 22, 2007I would not have believed this would be possible in 2007, and yet, here it is.
CBS is bringing to your television, this fall, a series so full of stereotypes, so dazzingly stupid, so ridiculously puerile, that it must surely offend the sensibilities of everyone in science.
I am talking about "The Big Bang Theory".
Dubious thanks to alert reader Maggie W. for letting me know about this. My life would have been happier had I been in blissful ignorance, but alas, it is my mournful duty to skewer the moronocity of things of this ilk.
Here is a quote from the show's web site:
"The Big Bang…
thusspakezuska | May 10, 2007So, according to WT, I have minions.
This would be awesome, if it were true.
Alas, I fear it is not. Mr. Zuska and I still must fetch our own food and load the dishwasher, and last night we were forced to gather the trash and wheel the container to the curb ourselves. I am pretty sure if I had minions, I wouldn't be doing any of that. Especially the trash part, because that includes dealing with the kitty litter. Mr. Zuska being faint of heart when it comes to kitty poop, that duty generally falls to me.
I am for damn sure if I had minions, I would not be carrying kitty poop around…
thusspakezuska | April 30, 2007Maybe it's not a bad time to repost the link to this post, and to requote this snippet from it:
When the topic at hand is men not taking an issue seriously, suggesting that the issue might not really be all that serious is not being dispassionate. It is, in fact, taking a side. And the people on the side you're taking, incidentally, include the gropers, the rapists, the sexual-favor-demanding bosses.
Thanks to Jane for reminding me of that excellent post.
thusspakezuska | February 22, 2007Perhaps you will recall a somewhat controversial post awhile back delicately titled The Origin of "Puke On His Shoes". In that post I described the persistent, annoying, unwanted attentions of a male passenger on an Amtrak train, despite my (what should have been obvious) signal that I was completely uninterested in him: I was reading a book, and continued reading it as he yammered away, hitting on me.
Women commenters more or less completely understood my tactic, whereas some male commenters felt this was unfair and I should have been more straightforward. I suppose they were suggesting…
thusspakezuska | February 15, 2007You absolutely must read these two posts:
Tara at Aetiology writes about There's No Crying in Academia!
Her post was inspired by Am I A Woman Scientist? who wrote That Little Sucker Just Saved Your Life.
Both posts are about crying in the workplace - women do, men don't (usually). Men think women are weak when they do. But women are usually crying not because they feel weak, but because they are frustrated and/or angry. Am I A Woman Scientist? writes:
I have cried once in a professional setting, and come close to crying twice. All three times, it was a stress release, because I was quite…
thusspakezuska | January 29, 2007Female Science Professor describes the amazing (and amazingly depressing) power of invisibility women in science seem to possess - at least when Distinguished Schmucks are visiting the department:
A male colleague and I walked up to the Distinguished Visitor in the hallway, and the visitor stuck out his hand at my male colleague and gave him a manly handshake; they introduced themselves to each other. For some reason, I assumed it was my turn for a handshake and introduction. Social horror! He ignored me. I dropped my hand, but I introduced myself anyway, saying something like "I'm on your…
thusspakezuska | December 19, 2006Attention, class!
You'll recall that in my About section, I state the following:
I wish that I could also say, like Twisy [Faster], that this is not a feminist primer. But Twisty has the luxury of dealing with the rest of the academy (and much of the workforce) that marched bravely forward starting in the seventies, entering the new millenium with at least a modest understanding of the fact that women are humans. Sadly for me and for all women, the majority of Science-and-Engineering-Land remains Groundhog Day-ishly rooted in the 1950's, where Title IX is just a dim dream...I resign myself to…
thusspakezuska | December 14, 2006So I'm cruising about Scienceblogs to catch up on my Sciblings and I come across this on Aetiology:
So, razib relates a recent observation of the apparently rare species hottus chicas scientificas at a local wine bar. Shelley's ticked:
Not sure whether to be more irked that Razib suggests that smart women aren't hot (and vice versa), that hot women don't like sci fi, or than sci fi somehow denotes intelligence. Booooooooo.
While razib tells her to "focus on the science fiction part. not the intelligence," I agree with Shelley's later comment that who cares exactly whether he was talking about…
thusspakezuska | December 4, 2006Occasionally one of my (usually male) readers will take me to task for what he considers to be my unwarranted angry - dare I say, strident? - tone of voice. Can I not be more polite? More reasonable? Would I not catch more flies with honey? Only speak sweet reason, dear crazy bitch Zuska, they plead, and we will assuredly attend to the substance of your message. But not while you rant and rave so. No indeed. That can only turn us off.
Well, as someone I knew once said, I don't want to catch flies. I want to kill them.
I told the story of the origins of the "Puke On His Shoes"…
thusspakezuska | December 4, 2006Longtime Zuskateers know that I often recommend, or express the desire to engage in, puking upon someone's shoes when they have behaved in an egregious manner. Perhaps you have occasionally wondered whence came this delightful phrase.
A thousand years ago, when I was still a graduate student in Boston, I went to visit a friend of mine in D.C. On the long train trip back to Boston, a suited gentleman (and I use the term very loosely) sat down next to me somewhere around Baltimore. I was deeply engrossed in a novel, but this moron didn't care. He interrupted my reading with a steady…
thusspakezuska | November 21, 2006Over at Dr. Free-Ride's pad, Ken C. is most distressed that no one has attempted to debate our dear friend Rachel's serious critique of the NSF report, Beyond Bias and Barriers.
Knowing how ably Rachel dissected the work of that horribly biased panel that put together that shoddy piece of work, I nevertheless shouldered the burden of taking on a point by point rebuttal of her main claims. You can find this rebuttal over at Dr. Free-Ride's, just below Ken C.'s whining. Here's a taste (quoting myself):
Well, Rachel is a freshman, and so perhaps she has not yet had a lot of experience with…
thusspakezuska | November 21, 2006Jokerine wrote in respone to Let Her Eat the Oppressor's Cake:
had a discussion in my group today about affirmative action. One of the guys comented that if we promoted women in male fields soon all groups on the fringes of society would ask for prefferential treatment. I couldn't figure out what was bothering me for a while, but wait a minute since when are women a fringe group. And this from a man that considers himself liberal and progressive. Poor Rachel, one day her eyes will open and she will see how much worse she is off as a woman. I'll be there for her to come crying to.
No indeedy,…
thusspakezuska | November 20, 2006Toadygawa is history! At least at Picower. The Chronicle's news blog reports that Susumu Tonegawa is stepping down as head of Picower after an university investigation found he "behaved inappropriately when he tried to discourage a young female scholar from accepting a job offer from MIT". Sadly, the university declined to discipline anyone and we are told Toadygawa is stepping down on his own. I like to think he was strong-armed into stepping down. I am pretty sure he didn't just up and do it out of the goodness of his heart because of his concern for the larger MIT community. Or, as…
thusspakezuska | November 17, 2006This is a first - a post that gets classified under both "moron management" AND "role models".
If you are a female professor who has ever had to deal with rowdy, disrespectful boys in your classroom, I urge you to read Susanna Ashton's column in the Chronicle of Higher Education. This must surely rank as one of the most clever examples of moron management I have ever heard of. Ashton had a class of 22, 17 of whom were men, and 11 of those were all from one fraternity - the wittily euphemized Kappa Wokka Wakka. The KWW's were rowdy and disruptive, albeit in a fraternal, mutually…
thusspakezuska | November 15, 2006It's been a migrainey sort of week here at Chez Zuska, so in lieu of something new at the moment, I'm giving you a "best of Zuska" from the old blog site. By coincidence, it's also trash and recycling night here in my hometown. Read and decide for yourself.
Shake Off The Dust Under Your Feet
And as a follow-up to my last post, take a gander at what Female Science Professor has to say:
At my university, there has never been a woman department chair in science, engineering, or math in the entire history of the university. A dean recently told me that it will probably be another decade or so…
thusspakezuska | November 12, 2006Female Science Professor has the most wonderful story to tell about a career forum at her university. Organized by a junior female faculty at her school,
There is typically a panel with representatives from various types of academic institutions (small colleges, research universities, medium-sized universities), from industry, and from government agencies. The panel members speak briefly about their jobs and then there is a lot of interactive question-answer time with the audience. After,there is informal social time for additional interaction between students and the panel members.
What's…
thusspakezuska | November 8, 2006Found this blog via a comment on Young Female Scientist this evening
Rising to the Occasion
Saxifraga is in Scandinavia and says of herself
I am a newly minted PhD in the natural sciences. I work as a research scientist and is currently holding a temporary position as an associate professor. I moved to a new country last year. I moved to a very remote place in the far north for the temporary position. I recently got engaged. we will move in together soon after four years of doing the long-distance relationship thing. I will be appointed assistant head of department when I return to my home…
thusspakezuska | October 25, 2006As I promised, here is the email I received from President Lewis Duncan of Rollins College after I wrote a blog post on his comments on the Karpova-Tonegawa affair. My commentary on his email is in brackets and italicized. Email and my commentary after the jump.
Dear Ms. Frank, [sic]
I take strong exception to your misleading interpretation and extrapolation of my quote in the Boston Globe.
How disappointing that a fellow scientist would be so presumptuous in her perspectives. [This is lame.
'You're a scientist, so you're supposed to be rational, and you aren't being rational, so are…
thusspakezuska | October 13, 2006Dr. Shellie has a post on the National Academies report and the ensuing discussion on Inside Higher Ed. Dr. Shellie says:
I am increasingly frustrated with the issue of discrimination against women in academia. Rhetorically, women are being put in the position of having to prove that discrimination exists, against the claims of their opponents, who claim that the gender ratio in science is in fact due to other factors (biology, interests, etc.).
I don't like the way this debate is framed. It puts women in a weak position, to argue the evidence for their own poor treatment.
And anyway, I…